A fire-suppression system worked well Tuesday morning at a business off Yosemite Boulevard and Mitchell Road, likely saving firefighters a lot of work and the building a lot of damage.
The fire was in a dust-collection hopper on the exterior of Sierra Casework, on the 200 block of Spenker Avenue. The company is less than half a mile from Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District Station 31 on Mitchell Road.
Initially, there was heavy smoke from the fire, Stanislaus Consolidated Capt. Mark Jacobs said. But the sprinkler system kicked in and quickly knocked down the flames, and the smoke had largely dissipated upon crews’ arrival.
“We have several of these cabinet shops in our district,” Jacobs said, “and these (dust fires) are pretty common. Throughout the cabinet shop are a bunch of vacuum systems, and the main port sucks all the dust out here and they discard it.”